TATUM RUSH

You could run into a show of American/Swiss-Italian songwriter, producer, performer and singer Tatum Rush at an underground club in New York, sure, but quite possibly also at a decadent rooftop party at an 18th century estate in Rome. It's Pop, it's contemporary R&B, it's Nu-Disco, some say it's (a reasonable version of) R Kelly-meets-Osho-in-the-Doha-desert. It evokes the present, past and future of music.

Tatum Rush was born in San Diego, California, and since receiving a bachelor in performance art in Geneva he has been working between Lausanne, Paris, Berlin and Milan in songwriting, recording, video-making, dancing and producing - sometimes under various pseudonyms. In 2018 he played at the Montreux Jazz Festival and will play in January 2019 at the Eurosonic Festival (NL). He collaborated with artists as diverse as Zap Mama, Richard Dorfmeister, Björn Magnusson, Fai Baba and Tsunano, Tatum's musical influences are broad as a desert so you might catch midnight glimpses of Patrice Rushen, Erykah Badu, Marcellus Pittman, Panjabi MC, Tom Jobim, but also Frank Ocean, Sébastien Tellier or Jai Paul.

Tatum writes and produces his own music often in collaboration with producer Ceri from the Milan-based record label Undamento. During his live shows he is escorted by DJ Bauchamp and his manager of unknown origins, Chad Murray, and always wears a black silk-like scarf on his head.

latest releases

MINI GIRLS (EP)

Tatum Rush released in June 2018 a six-track EP through Paris-based label Pschent. Featuring among others the legendary Zap Mama. This album is an ode to Tatum's constellation of muses and a celebration of the ancient mysteries of sensuality. Tatum Rush's unique musical alchemy mixes the classiest pop with contemporary R&B, Nu disco, Trap, Latin rhythms and even Arabic atmospheres into a daring new genre that you could call "Intercontinental Pop". Luscious lyrics in English, French and Portuguese summon the listener to join Tatum and his muses on a blue moon boat ride to the sunset.The "Mini Girls" EP is accompanied by videos for the single"Mini Girls" and for the track "Do Me No Right".

MINI GIRLS : INTERCONTINENTAL EDITION EP

Tatum Rush releases the Mini Girls : Intercontinental Edition EP putting forward the singles Bahiana and Imperial Odalisque both with Swiss-Brazilian artist Nancy Deleuze, both produced with Milan-based producer Ceri.Features a remix of Bahiana by Tsunano and a Radio Edit of Imperial Odalisque.

BAHIANA ft. Nancy Deleuze

ABOUT THE VIDEOCLIP

"Bahiana" is a song I wrote one humid night in Brazil, recollecting the religious experience I witnessed in the company of Nancy Deleuze earlier that day at the beach: a ceremony from the Yoruba religion, in which women walk into the sea in white dresses offering roses, champagne and cigarettes to Yemoja, the Goddess of the Sea, begging for her protection. Through a melodic dialogue between Tatum and Nancy the song reflects the ingredients of the atmosphere of this experience: nostalgia, hysteria and an intensified libido.

Talking to film director Theodor Guelat and video artist Marco Colmar about how to translate the hidden meaning of this song into a video, we knew immediately we would want to work with the archetypical elements of a cult, religious or other. We were drawn to the absurd and comical connection between the cult leader and the modern pop artist figure, as it is obvious in characters such as Osho, Charles Manson, Father Yod from the Source Family, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but also in a more indirect way to characters such as the Marquis De Sade, Casanova or Cagliostro. It seems that in the most typical manifestations of cults the issue of sexuality is granted a privileged seat if not the whole mansion, which often hosts spectacular shows of nudity, free love, but also morbid instincts. Close to where I come from in Ticino there is a mountain called Monte Verità where there used to be a utopian community of intellectuals which was known by the locals to practice long dances in the grass, naked, granting them the nickname balabiött (literally "those who dance naked"). We shot the video entirely in Ticino, in locations reminiscent of the fields at Monte Verità, or the villa from Pasolini's Salò, or one of the Marquis De Sade's possible retreats. I invited the Paris/Lausanne-based performance collective (Music For) Eggplant and other friends to participate in this temporary cult of my own.

Nancy Deleuze

Tatum Rush

IMPERIAL ODALISQUE

ft. Nancy Deleuze

Tatum and Nancy were riding in a 4x4 Jeep at 5AM in the Doha desert towards the Saudi Arabian border for a film shoot when they heard the incredible song by Rachid Taha "Ya Rayeh". The opening notes of the song and the sight of the lights of the petroleum plants opened Tatum's mind to the urgency of bringing that moment into a song. This track is currently on the official AirFrance playlist.